


Overexposed

by SunshineMoon (CaptainSpace)



Category: Kamen Rider Decade
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 17:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16123007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainSpace/pseuds/SunshineMoon
Summary: Can we do this forever, Tsukasa?





	Overexposed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SuperChickenDX](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperChickenDX/gifts).



_ Of all the treasures I’ve gathered in my travels, the one called ‘freedom’ has to be the most precious. _

 

_ Maybe the second. _

 

So mused Kaito Daiki, who was definitely not running from anything and could stop anytime he wanted. But he was only mostly in denial—internally, he could ask things he’d never give voice to.

 

Such as:  _ What’s my endpoint? How long can I do this for?  _ Would he wear himself ragged forever chasing the next shiny thing from world to world and just break from the strain one day? Would he eventually get too old to keep up with his own pace? Would everything catch up at once and drag him down to his end?

 

Then his ears pricked up—a familiar voice, crying out in frustration—and all such thoughts vanished as quickly as they’d come.

 

_ What have you gotten into now? _

 

_ But don’t worry. I’m here. _

 

* * *

  
  
  


Tsukasa fell back from the heavy blade’s onslaught, finding his back against the wall. “I’m getting tired of you Foundation X guys...every damn world lately. Trying to be the new Shocker?”

 

The transformed executive lunged again. “If you’re sick of us, just stay out of our way!”

 

“Sorry.” Tsukasa dropped to one knee, catching the attack with his own sword just short of his neck. “Ruining things is about the only thing I’m good at.”

 

His attacker pressed in, coming closer and closer to removing his head—until a shot from behind brought it to its knees. A second knocked it flat on its front, allowing Tsukasa to scramble away and right himself.

 

“You have a lot of free time,” he said, not looking Daiki’s way.

 

“In trouble again?” came the reply. “Can you do anything without me?”

 

“We can have this talk somewhere safer,” Tsukasa said with a glance at the recovering monster. He ran back to where Daiki stood at the end of the road and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him round the corner and out of sight.

 

* * *

  
  
  


They’d made it out of the city and now slumped against a tree, at 45 degrees from each other, looking out over a sad little lake at the bottom of the hill.

 

Tsukasa detached his Driver, stowing it away. “For the record, I’ve done  _ plenty  _ without you.”

 

“Yeah.” Daiki leaned over, just close enough to suggest intimacy but no further. “Giving up our trust to fight in those superhero wars, you managed that just fine.”

 

“Are you still on that?” Tsukasa went to shove him back, but Daiki resisted, gripping his arm, teeth bared in what someone who’s never seen one might describe as a smile.

 

“I thought I was more than that to you.”

 

“That’s unusually direct, from you.”

 

Finally Daiki sat back. “You’re one to talk.”

 

“Don’t judge me like that!” Tsukasa snapped. “Empathy, trust, compassion...I’m learning these things.”

 

“And yet, talking about them like that is you at your coldest. You make it sound so easy.”

 

They lapsed into silence, entrenching into their separate lines of thought.

 

_ Is this it, then? The freedom to...what? Endure this dance forever? _

 

He would, though.

 

This world hadn’t given Tsukasa a full outfit, but it was still in that ‘hard-boiled’ sphere, and had slipped as it were a cigarette pack into his pocket. He lit up as they sat there, the smoke seeming to follow his directions and mingling with the tree’s branches.

 

Idiot. He couldn’t stand those things, Daiki knew. Finally he reached over and snatched it from Tsukasa’s mouth, sparing the fool from choking on his tough act. Almost unconsciously Daiki slipped it between his lips, imagining for a moment he could taste Tsukasa on it. It had been so long.

 

Eventually:

 

“Hey, Tsukasa.”

 

“What?”

 

“You ever think about your journey’s end?”

 

“Used to.” Tsukasa looked up to the sky. “Now, I’m sure there’s no such thing. This journey itself is my world.”

 

Daiki blew smoke out the corner of his mouth. “You know you  _ have  _ a world out there.”

 

“Do I?”

 

“Everyone does!”

 

“It’s not like I’m searching for the ‘real’ me. That might as well be a different person, at this point. Me, I’m…”

 

Daiki rolled his eyes. “Just a Kamen Rider passing through, right? Yeah.” He grew serious. “I remember. But leaving aside your past, you don’t ever think about finding a world for yourself?”

 

Tsukasa pitched forward, laughing out loud. “What? Settle down? You’re joking. I could never...besides, every world rejects me eventually. Like a virus.”

 

“Tsukasa!” Daiki swerved, grabbing his hand and looking directly into his eyes. “You should know. Even if all the worlds—if existence itself rejects you—I won’t.”

 

“Direct again…” Slowly, Tsukasa lifted the hand gripping his. “Kaito. Are you lonely?”

 

Their gazes were torn apart by a distant explosion. Tsukasa jumped to his feet, spotting the plume of smoke rising from the city. “That asshole from before...he’s calling me out.” He dusted himself off, putting on a beleaguered look for purely his own benefit. “Kaito...I’m gonna go do something stupid.”

 

The heavy  _ chok _ of an oversized high-tech pistol being readied came from behind.

 

“Don’t try to stop me,” he warned.

 

“Then don’t try to leave!” Daiki forced out, barely able to look while keeping his aim levelled. It shouldn’t have felt this hard. This had long been his reflex. At the first sign of obstruction, point gun.

 

“If a shark stops swimming, it dies,” Tsukasa said, taking his first step forwards. “I don’t choose to be this way.”

 

Daiki went to pull the trigger but his finger stopped at the point of contact, trembling furiously until he lowered his aim with a jerk. “You act like you’re above this hero of justice stuff, but that’s exactly the kind of fool you are.”

 

“Am I? I think my hands are a bit dirty for that.”

 

“You are.

 

“...I can’t say I hate it, though,” Daiki said, falling in behind him. “You really are cold, using me like this.”

 

Tsukasa looked back over his shoulder with a smirk. “In the end, you’ll fight to protect your treasure. That’s who  _ you  _ are.

 

“I can’t say I hate it.”

  
  
  


* * *

 

 

_ “You took something dangerous, sneak-thief.” _

 

_ “Better watch me closely. What might I take next?” _

  
  


* * *

  
  


The city plaza was empty of life and movement, but for the monster waiting for them. It looked like it might have once been a Dopant, but had been modified almost beyond recognition as such. Barely-controlled power flickered through juddering cables beneath its armour plating, its houndlike face snarling at the two approaching figures.

 

“Would you stop wrecking this place?” Tsukasa called, holding his card at the ready as he picked his way over the cracked pavement. “It’d reflect badly on me if I left this world in worse shape than I found it.”

 

“ _ Decade… _ ” it rumbled. “ _ Destroyer of worlds. Offer up your life. Is it not better for this world to be ruled by us than to face destruction? _ ”

 

“Sorry,” he said, “I’ve heard that one before. You’re no Shocker, Foundation X, but I’ll give you the same treatment.” He glanced Daiki’s way. “Freedom is one of life’s irreplaceable treasures, right?”

 

Daiki’s shoulders shook, almost imperceptibly. “Yeah...these guys have to go.” He grinned. “Looks like this world needs a destroyer after all. Tsukasa.”

 

_ “Silence!”  _ The monster leaned back, flickering red light building between its teeth, before heaving its whole upper body forwards and spitting forth a huge gout of fire, enveloping the duo.

 

“Transform!” Decade and Diend leapt unscathed from the flames, Diend rolling off to the side and coming up firing. The shots barely damaged it, but kept it off-balance long enough for Decade to charge into close quarters and score a pair of great slashes across its chest.

 

They kept up like this, Tsukasa’s attacks pushing it back step by step and Daiki throwing in covering fire whenever it was about to take back the momentum. Tough as it was their combined attacks were starting to damage it little by little, and it seemed they might be on the brink of victory, when it dug its heels into the fractured ground with a snarl, the fire in its eyes blazed brighter, and with blinding speed it struck at Tsukasa’s stomach, the unbelievable force behind its fist throwing him onto his back in a daze.

 

It lurched forward to stamp down on him, before being tackled back by a trio of Riotroopers Diend had just summoned.

 

“You aren’t losing after all that talk, are you?” Daiki called.

 

“Leave me alone!” Tsukasa stood, opening his belt and cardholder.

 

_ KAMEN RIDE: RYUKI _

 

He ran back in just as the monster tore through the summoned troops, waiting as it swung for him then diving into a shard of the shattered glass left by its earlier rampage, emerging behind it and dragging his blade down its back, staggering it forward. Behind the fierce visage lay the mind of a Foundation X commander, though, and the second time he tried this it predicted his arrival point and slammed a forearm into his chest in passing.

 

He flew back into an awkward half-fall, head spinning again, already fumbling for another card— _ KABUTO _ —getting the Driver’s buckle shut just in time— _ CLOCK UP _

 

Tsukasa became a blur, back and forth past the hulking creature, striking again and again and slowly chipping away at its incredible resilience. It fell to its knees, and he banked to speed back in for the final blow. Thirty yards, twenty, ten…

 

A shudder of thwarted fury ran through its body, its clawed fingers carving deep ruts in the ground. The inner light escaping through its eyes and mouth suddenly grew blindingly intense, bursting out as a lightspeed wave of force in all directions. The blast enveloped the entire square, neither Tsukasa’s speed or Daiki’s distance saving them and smashing both into the buildings behind, Kabuto’s power leaving Tsukasa as he collapsed onto his front, twitching.

 

Its second wind found, the monster surged forward, raising both arms to bring the gleaming claws down on Decade’s prone form. It lunged, tearing into the armour of—Diend, who’d crossed the distance in a desperate burst of speed, standing shakily between them with gouts of steam rising from his shredded suit.

 

“Tsukasa,” he gasped. “Say something.”

 

After an agonising few seconds of silence, a scrabbling came from the ground, the fallen Rider stirring. “They won’t break...” Hands curling into fists, fighting back the pounding in his ears and the rising black in his vision, Tsukasa pushed himself up one more time. “My journey...and his treasure...won’t break so easily!”

 

Heaving in a deep breath, he leapt in, pushing past Daiki and carrying the monster back a good dozen steps before it overcame its surprise and dug in, bringing them to a standstill. He drew out his finisher card—pre-empting him, it clamped a hand down over his buckle, claws digging into the armour around it.

 

Not missing a beat, he tossed the card directly backwards, crying as he threw himself to the floor, “ _ Daiki!” _

 

In it was slotted to the readied Diendriver, a whirlwind of holographic cards emerging and ramming into their foe, keeping it at bay.

 

_ FINAL ATTACK RIDE _

 

Daiki tossed the gun aside, taking a run-up towards the tube and launching himself into a flying kick through it.

 

_ D-D-D-D-DECADE _

  
  


* * *

 

 

_ “I think I made all your favourites. Tsukasa.” _

 

_ “In my past...did we know each other?” _

  
  


* * *

 

 

They stood back to back and just at the edge of arm’s reach, each with the sunset on one side and the flaming remains of the almost-Dopant on the other, as tattered a pair of messes as always by the end of one of these things.

 

“No-one witnessed you this time, right?” Daiki said. “Just a destroyer passing through, remembered by nobody.”

 

“I kept their hands off this world,” Tsukasa said. “That’ll have to do.”

 

“If…” Daiki gritted his teeth, pushing the words out. “If it counts...I told you I won’t forget you, right? I couldn’t if I wanted to.”

 

“Is there something you wanted to say?” Tsukasa’s hands dropped into his pockets. “Besides repeating yourself.”

 

Daiki spun towards him, grabbing his shoulder. “I don’t intend to thank you! But...you stood up for me, and my treasure.”

 

Tsukasa looked back to meet his gaze. “Of course. I hear you’ve got a pretty special one.”

 

Daiki tried his utmost to keep his jaw from shaking. “The greatest.”

 

“There, see? I’m just being self-serving, as usual.” Tsukasa turned fully, taking Daiki’s hand in his and moving it back. “So there’s no need to talk about thanking me in the first place.”

 

“One more thing, Tsukasa.”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Can we really just keep doing this?”

 

“Of course.”

 

It was one of those beautifully natural kisses, where you both just feel it at the exact same time and everything comes together perfectly. It lasted a full thirty seconds. It said everything they couldn’t bring themselves to put into words in a pure release of feeling.

 

It took place entirely in Daiki’s imagination as he watched Tsukasa’s figure grow smaller and smaller on the horizon.


End file.
